Bedding The Billionaire (Bedding the Bachelors Book 3) (28 page)

“Stronger how?”

He shook his head. “It doesn’t matter anymore. I was wrong to bring you here, Luce. Hell, I shouldn’t even be here. Instead of disregarding the fact that Marie and the other people in this town don’t like me, that they blame me for Sierra’s death, and trying to help them, I should take a page from your book and just stay away.”

Her chest seemed to squeeze so tight she could barely breathe. How had things gone from her confessing her love to this? This
fight
? “I don’t understand anything you’re saying. I don’t understand why you’re so angry. You agreed we couldn’t be together. You agreed to be my friend. That’s the whole reason I let you help me with this fake engagement. You knew I had issues about your money and now you’re throwing it in my face, making me feel like I did something wrong.”

He shook his head. “You haven’t done anything wrong, Lucy, and I’m sorry I made you feel that way. I guess at some point it just felt so natural, us being together, us being engaged, I guess I just started to believe that things could be different.” He shook his head yet again and muttered, “I need to go for a walk. Clear my head. Then I think we should pack up and go.”

He started to walk in front of her to go to the door.

Lucy grabbed his arm and said, “Absolutely not.”

He raised a brow. “Excuse me?”

“You are not calling me a coward and walking out of here without telling me about Sierra. And you are certainly not fleeing this town until you explain why the townspeople blame you for Sierra’s death.”

“You don’t get to demand anything from me, Lucy.”

“As your pretend-fiancée and the woman who’s spent the last week with you, I beg to differ.” She raised her hands, cupped his face, and said, “But even putting that aside, if nothing else, I’m your friend, Jamie. You’ve wanted me to share this whole time when you obviously haven’t shared a part of yourself with me. Can’t you do what you’ve asked me to do all along? Can’t you trust me?”

Jamie reached up, took her hands in his, and then nodded. “Fine. I’ll share. But then we need to talk about us.”

“Okay,” Lucy said.

She sat down on the bed and he sat next to her. Then he told her about Sierra. About how Sierra hated that she came from a different background. About the party they’d attended, and how some of the girls told her she looked “cheap” because her clothes weren’t as nice as theirs. About the boys who’d assumed she was cheap and tried to touch her. About how upset she’d gotten and how she’d told him they didn’t belong together and how she didn’t tell him that just that night, but multiple times before that. And how he wouldn’t listen to her.

“At the party, she was upset. I tried to tell her it didn’t matter what other people thought, but she refused to listen. She left and ended up driving the car into a tree. It was an accident—she wasn’t trying to commit suicide, just lost control of the car. She died at the scene.”

“Her death isn’t your fault,” she said immediately.

“I know that.”

“Jamie, it wasn’t, and it’s horrible for Marie and anyone else to suggest it was.”

“I think they blame me for not letting her break up with me when she first tried to.”

“So they blame you for being a nice guy? Well, fuck them.”

He laughed then grew serious. “I thought you viewed my niceness to my detriment.”

“You have a lot more to who you are. You’re super smart, and super funny and sexy and fun to be with…”

Jamie put his arm around her and pulled her into his chest. He held her there for a few minutes before he said, “So, would you ever consider overlooking my “niceness” because of all my other redeeming qualities and actually being with me…for real?”

“I’ve been considering it a lot lately.” She was going to say more. She was going to say
but.
..

But before she could, Jamie kissed her, making her toes curl, and not in just a sexual way. The kiss was akin to an overwhelming expression of emotion that made her chest swell and her head spin. The kiss was akin to a declaration of love, one that was unnecessary because they’d already told each other they loved one another.

The problem was, she still didn’t know what they should do about it.

Lucy kept her thoughts to herself because she didn’t want to upset Jamie anymore than she had. What he’d said had struck a chord for her. She
was
being cowardly, afraid to commit herself completely to him because she wasn’t willing take on anyone or anything that would dare try to come between them. Yet she was strong. Stronger than Sierra, she told herself, if only because she was older and more experienced.

And bottom line, Jamie was…well,
Jamie.

If ever there was a man worth fighting for, a man worth making compromises for, it was him. She knew that.

She knew it
. But she still couldn’t get the words out to tell him that.

After a few minutes, likely sensing the internal struggle she was having, he said, “You hungry?”

“I am,” she said, hooking her arm through his.

“There’s a really cute little restaurant on Main Street that has the best hamburgers I’ve ever tasted.”

“Mmm, sounds good,” she said. “Let me change.”

Lucy put on a pair of jeans and a Harley Davidson T-shirt she’d bought when they were in Vegas. It was fitted, red, and showed just a hint of cleavage.

They walked hand in hand through the little town. As they strolled past the town library, Lucy glanced in the window. “Oh my goodness. Look.”

There was some kind of reading circle going on, with kids ranging anywhere from two to about seven or eight years old. Standing in front of them was a man that looked like he’d just walked in from the Outback. He was holding a giant, yellow boa constrictor and there were multiple cages behind him with various other animals inside.

“Let’s go in,” she told him.

“I thought you were hungry.”

Lucy rolled her eyes and said, “I’ll live. Come on.”

* * *

Lucy’s enthusiasm was contagious. They stood in the back of the room behind the parents of the children and listened to the man talk in a strong Australian accent. He told the kids about the snake and answered their questions. When he finished his talk, he said that if anyone in the audience wanted to hold the snake, he or she should raise their hand. Jamie wasn’t the least bit surprised when Lucy raised hers.

He leaned over and whispered in her ear. “I thought my snake was the only one you liked to play with.”

She elbowed him in the ribs and actually shushed him, making him laugh.

After the difficult talk they’d had back at the inn, he felt light years better. He hadn’t missed the fact that Lucy had failed to answer his question about being with him for real. But it was definitely a topic he planned on raising again. Soon.

Hell, he still couldn’t believe it. She’d said it. She’d admitted she loved him.

That, he could work with. That, he could be patient for.

Lucy didn’t know it yet, but she was going to be his in every way there was.

Lucy joined the children and held the boa and a baby python and even a baby alligator. Jamie chatted with the Crocodile Hunter for a few minutes and decided that even though he was looking at Lucy like he wanted to eat her with a spoon, he wasn’t half-bad as far as hunky, Australian tough-guy types went. The best thing in his favor? He seemed to know Lucy was with Jamie and didn’t even try to hit on her. Big points for that.

Lucy was giddy and chatty on the rest of their walk to the restaurant. When they got there, her eyes widened once more. Standing guard outside was a stuffed eight-foot tall grizzly bear. He was in a glass case but his teeth and nails were bared as if he was about to pounce. The name of the restaurant was “Kodiak” and the entire theme was bears. It even had a gift shop filled with teddy bears and collector cups and T-shirts.

“This is so cool,” Lucy said.

Jamie smiled, loving how she seemed to take the same pleasure in holding snakes and visiting bear-themed restaurant that she did in taking a private jet ride to New York.

“Before we leave, I want to look around and get something for the baby,” Lucy told him.

Jamie gave her an indulgent smile as they were shown to their table. He watched her eyes flit from one big bear to the next. Once they were seated and the waiter had taken their drink orders, Jamie said, “First the aquarium, then the snakes, now the bears. You really like animals, don’t you?”

“I love them. When I was a kid I used to tell my dad I wanted to own a zoo when I grew up.”

Jamie caught himself just before he did something stupid like offered to buy her one. But honest to God that was his first instinct. He’d do anything, pay anything, to make Lucy happy. Instead, he jokingly said, “Oh, I see now why you chose the zoo as our next day trip with Milly.”

They enjoyed their lunch together and then continued their walk around the little town. They walked through the park where there was a baseball game going on and they stopped to watch. One of the guys choosing teams saw Jamie sitting behind the backstop and said, “Hey, we need one more player, are you up for it?”

Jamie shook his head and Lucy said, “Aw, come on…I’d love to watch you play some baseball.” She made her pouty face and a minute later, he was jogging out to the field.

It wasn’t buying her a zoo, but hell, it was still a pretty big deal for him.

Even as a teenager, Jamie hadn’t been all that good at baseball, but he was decent enough not to embarrass himself. At one point, he was actually applauded for catching a ball and scoring the last out. The various men thanked him for playing.

When he strode back to Lucy, she high-fived him and said, “Go Jamison! Woot! You kicked baseball booty.”

He leaned closer. “Did it impress you enough to—”

“Jamie Whitcomb?” a man called from behind him.

Jamie turned. “Yeah,” Jamie told him. “That’s me.”

Lucy stepped closer toward him, practically pasting herself to his side, and he smiled down at her. She looked ready to tear anyone apart if they dared said a bad word to him.

“I’m Garrett Hawk. Your family wants to open that airplane parts plant?”

“Yes,” Jamie said, bracing himself.

A couple of guys stopped next to Garrett. “I heard the town council was putting a stop to that,” one of them said.

“They have concerns. I’m here to address them.”

A few of the men still glared at him and another one of them said, “We have kids here, families. We may not have billions like you and your family does, but our families are important to us, and we love them. We like our town the way it is and we don’t need outsiders coming in and ruining things any more than they already have.

“I understand your concerns,” Jamie said. “I’d just like the town to hear what we can bring to the table. To your tables.”

When there was more grumbling, Garrett said, “Well, thanks again for playing, Jamie. Never any harm in hearing people out and learning all the facts, is there, boys?”

He stared at the men around him until they finally nodded or verbally agreed.

Jamie put his arm around Lucy and guided her away from the others. “Enjoy the rest of your weekend.”

They walked silently for a while.

Finally, she said, “Are you angry with me?”

He stopped walking and looked at her. “Why would you think that?”

“I goaded you into playing, and then those guys—”

“I had a great time playing, and they have a right to speak their minds. If I’m going to win them over, Lucy, it’s not going to be with avoidance. I have to know their concerns to address them.”

Lucy hugged and kissed him. “You’re a good man, Jamie Whitcomb.”

“I love you, Lucy,” Jamie said.

“I love you, too,” she said. She smiled. “In spite of all the energy I’ve expended trying not to. Whoever said nice guys finish last never met you.”

CHAPTER TWENTY

Lucy and Jamie fell into each other’s arms and into the bed as soon as they got back to the room. As they lay on top of the down comforter, kissing and licking and sucking on each other’s lips, Lucy looked into Jamie’s eyes. Holding his face in her hands she said, “I think we can make this work.”

In a voice that was already heavy from shortened breaths, Jamie said, “I’m willing to do whatever it takes to make it work and make you completely believe it. I can’t imagine a life without you in it, Lucy.”

“I feel the same way,” she told him. She sucked his bottom lip into her mouth and ran her tongue along it, tasting him, loving the way it felt to just lie in his arms, finally saying the words that were so hard to say but meant so much out in the open. “I love you.”

Their kissing led to heavy petting. Clothes began coming off and were thrown to the floor. Jamie’s cock throbbed and jerked as Lucy reached down and wrapped her hand around it, stroking it lightly. She put her lips to his ear and said, “No teasing or extended foreplay today, okay? Just you inside me. I need you to fill me up.”

Jamie climbed on top of her, holding his weight off her with his arms. Lucy clung to his biceps as he slipped slowly inside of her. She was already soaking wet.